al-Tafsīl li-Mubham al-Marāsīl (1), and another book (2) entitled al-Mazīd fī Muttaṣil al-Asānīd (3).
With this we have concluded the categories that deal with the ruling on a missing link in the isnād (4) (5).
[Categories of reports rejected because of criticism of the transmitter]
(Next comes) criticism, which arises from ten causes: some are more injurious to a narrator’s standing than others. Five relate to integrity (ʿadālah) and five to accuracy (ḍabṭ).
Scholars did not concern themselves (6) with separating (7) one of the two sets from (8) the other (9), for a reason (10) that required otherwise—namely (11) to arrange them in descending order, from the gravest to the next gravest (12) cause for rejection, step by step; for criticism is either:
(1) Al-Khatib states this explicitly in Talkhis al-Mutashabih fi al-Rasm, 1:302, and in al-Kifayah, p. 344.
(2) MS K adds “wa-kitabihi” (and his book).
(3) Ibn al-Salah records it in Maʿrifat Anwaʿ ʿUlum al-Hadith, p. 393.
(4) The word “hukm” (legal ruling) is absent from MS M.
(5) In the margin of MS A, in the author’s own handwriting, appears: “thumma balagha kadhalik” (“then it likewise reached”).
(6) MS Z has “al-iʿtibar” (corroboration), while MS H and the margin of Z read “al-ightinaʾ” (self-sufficiency). Al-Qari comments in Sharh Sharh al-Nukhbah, p. 429, that “al-iʿtinaʾ” means “concern.”
(7) MS M reads “bi-tamayyuz” (with distinction) with a single, geminated ya.
(8) MSS A and K have “ʿan” (from).
(9) MS J vocalizes “al-akhar” in the accusative, which is erroneous.
(10) I.e. al-maslahah (the benefit); see Sharh Sharh al-Nukhbah, p. 429.
(11) MS H reads “tarattubuha” (its consequence).
(12) MSS A and H read “min” (of), whereas MS B has “ʿala” (upon). Al-Laqani notes in Qadaʾ al-Watar, p. 1019: “The phrase ‘min mujiib al-radd’ (among the grounds for rejection) identifies the more severe case; some copies read ‘fi mujiib al-radd’, which is a superfluous phrase linked to ‘the more severe’.”